Sunday, August 28, 2011

Anna and Politicians both are Wrong, but Politicians are More Wrong!

We are not misled into having faith in Team Anna, notwithstanding their apparent success. Our understanding of the present situation is as follows.

The near unanimous chorus, during the session, regarding the supremacy of the parliament, and cries of constitutionalism, overlooks certain simple realities. Despite seventy years of independence we still are struggling for drinking water, road and electricity, not to mention the forlorn law and order situation. There were dumb-fucks pretending to be wise (see an earlier entry on them here), who maintained that corruption was only a symptom and the malady was different. But they all either failed to mention what that malady was, or those who mentioned, are immoral wealth-redistributionists masquerading as prophets of social equity.

Objectively speaking, there is a growing realization that there are serious wrongs in our system. As we mentioned earlier, there is a degeneration in society and that besides we have a system which has failed. The politicians are either being foolish or being clever by half in disregarding this fact. The reason why lakhs of people are willing to join a movement led whether by Anna (Hazare) or by Baba (Ramdev) is because the parliamentarians have failed in providing that leadership. And in their unwillingness to accept this obvious failures, the politicians are trumpeting the platitudes regarding constitution. They do not realize that at a fundamental level they are being in denial. This denial, or failure to perceive the reality (of a serious problem) is the folly of the politicians.

On the other hand, the solution provided by team-Anna, that of Jan-Lokpal is another red-herring. It may improve the situation modestly, but will not change the basic realities. The success of team Anna, if viewed as a symbolic victory, can give us a new perspective. This means that if people unite to say NO, the government has to bow down. The government has only as much legitimacy as those who are governed voluntarily accord to it. Thus the governed have the liberty and the might to delegitimize their governors. However, only the simpleminded will believe the Jan Lokpal as a solution to the problem of corruption. If the Central Vigilance Commission and the Election Commission have failed then there is no reason to believe why a Lokpal will rewrite history.

The politicians are wrong being in denial while team Anna is wrong in having a misplaced affirmation. However, since Anna's victory symbolizes the affirmation of the power of the governed, team Anna is only less wrong. The politicians on the other hand, in their parrot-like affirmations of cliched platitudes are guilty of both denial and wrong affirmation. Thus they are More Wrong!

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